AT&T announces HTC Status Facebook phone

AT&T on Wednesday announced a smartphone BGR readers knew was coming — the HTC Status. AT&T’s version of the HTC ChaCha is now official, and it features Facebook integration deeper than any other phone on the market, barring the HTC Salsa, of course. We’ve already seen it live and in person, and we’ve handled the international version personally so we can say that the build is surprisingly solid for a mid-tier phone. Spec highlights include a 2.6-inch touchscreen display above a full QWERTY keypad, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, HTC’s Sense UI, an 800MHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera, a secondary front-facing VGA camera for video chat and a 1,250 mAh battery. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

Today, HTC launched a new page on Facebook, all about the HTC Status, coming exclusively to AT&T this summer. You know those priceless moments with your friends on Facebook—that quick pic, inside joke, or perfectly timed post? The first device with a Facebook share button, the HTC Status ensures those moments happen more often, keeping you at the center of your social circle. The HTC Status lets you share just about anything with just one touch, including music, photos, location and status updates. HTC Status also features a chat widget that allows you to, at a glance, see when your friends are online. You can start a live instant chat and juggle between as many private conversations as you want, all straight from the device.

“HTC Status brings a Facebook experience to people who want to share their experiences with their friends faster and easier than ever before,” said Jason Mackenzie, President, HTC Americas. “With a dedicated Facebook share button combined with the hallmark HTC Sense experience, HTC Status makes it easy for people to stay connected to the things that are important to them.”

Dedicated Facebook share button

One touch to share- Press the Facebook share button from your home screen to instantly post on your wall.

Snap, shoot, share- Take a picture or shoot a video and share it instantly with a press of the Facebook share button. You can even post pictures automatically as you’re taking them..

Quick-on-the-draw check-in- Just long press the Facebook share button to check in your location with Facebook Places.

Be first with the news- See something cool on the web? Share your latest find with a quick press of the Facebook share button.

Post to your wall – or a friend’s wall – From the home screen, a quick tap of the Facebook HTC share button makes sharing anything on your mind quick and easy.

Share what you’re listening to- The Facebook share button glows when you’re listening to music, to let you know you can share. Let your friends in on the music you love with the push of a button.

Lock screen shortcuts

Instead of a barrier, the HTC shortcut lock screen just became a launch pad to what you want to do now! Open your favorite apps by just dragging their shortcut icons into the lock screen ring.

See what’s happening before you pick up

Every time you get or make a call, you see your friend’s profile picture and latest status update right on the call screen. If it’s their birthday that week, you’ll see that, too.

Special effects for photos and videos

Anyone can be an artist. Use camera effects to make your photos and videos look like they’ve been taken through special lenses and filters—like Sepia for an old-fashioned look, or Aqua for a touch of cool. Apply effects right in the viewfinder, or apply them afterwards in the Gallery.

Front and back cameras

Take a spontaneous self-portrait or a quick cheek-to-cheek pic with your best pal on the VGA front-facing camera—or just double-check your hair with the Mirror app. With the 5.0 MP main camera with LED flash, you can capture every moment, with pictures or high-quality video.

A smarter ringer

The “Quiet ring on pickup” setting reduces the ring volume when you pick the phone up. The “Pocket mode” setting increases ring volume when your phone is in a pocket or bag, and then returns the volume to a reasonable level when you take it out.

However, it just seems like a regular Android phone with a QWERTY keyboard.

Is the “Facebook” thing just another Facebook app…or is it a special feature?

Anonymous

I’d ather have a Google+ phone

Cer

I’d rather have a HTC Bathroom Status phone.

Anonymous

I really wonder if there are that many people who are into Facebook to the point where this makes fiscal sense.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

http://twitter.com/SJFee Sean Fee

Chatty tweens, I gather. Esp. since it’s mid-tier.

numetheus

where have you been lately? Everyone is on Facebook.

CDeeRON

They might as well put a Twitter button on the left and a MySpace button in the middle and call it a day.

sirpaul

Who still uses MySpace…more likely a Google+ logo.

Cer

And a Friendster button, but hidden underneath the battery.

Dp

I havent seen it physically but looks cool in pitcures. Might be a good selling mid range phone.

sirpaul

How does that phone look ‘cool’? Do you have cataracts?

Anonymous

Lol

Hodgie

wow this phone looks heinous

Anonymous

Will the battery life suck? poor HTC lol.

http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

I have a feeling this phone has the potential to become the new Sidekick among younger consumers

Anonymous

Why do you need a phone to be the new Sidekick when there’s already a Sidekick, though?

http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

I meant in terms of popularity with younger smartphone users. The new Sidekick hasn’t exactly been making a huge splash in the market

Anonymous

As I said before, HTC has nuked the fridge with this Speak N Spell Nano (white version).

1eyebandit

Facebook needs to work on a better Android app before they get their own branded phone

Azmerf

It looks like something BlackBerry would develop. The F button isn’t even centered!

Anonymous

im surprised its android i never saw that mentioned before. so whats stopping HTC from just adding this integration to their other devices

Cer

The fact that people don’t want a Facebook logo on their phone.

12786144

Instead of a barrier, the HTC shortcut lock screen just became a launch
pad to what you want to do now! Open your favorite apps by just dragging
their shortcut icons into the lock screen ring.

Cer

This phone will have official Gingerbread before the Thunderbolt. There is no justice.

Anonymous

None.

Anonymous

Looks like a HTC Calculator

Anonymous

Lol

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ML67DN65LGCQWCZENTJX5Z7TYI Dollie Flynn

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, LiveCent. com

Anonymous

you would have to really be in love with facebook to pick 1 of these up. I miss the old days of calling your friend or texting to get together or seeing what theyre up too, with facebook theres no need to let your friends know your thinking about them to hangout or what theyre up to anymore. just log-in and see what there saying. lol. and in other news! why is it that HTC can make a full qwerty smartphone and get a front facing camera on it right out the gate for video chat, but RIM cant or wont do it. when they support business production, front camera makes sense on a blackberry smartphone.

The One

This phone looks like hot stinking garbage, and AT&T should be embarrassed to offer it.

Anonymous

When is this coming to sprint? Just kidding. This thing is ugly. Not to mention I hate facebook.

http://twitter.com/iphoneication r(d)apps

i usually do not diss facebook stuff but, social media phones are a flop! do we all remember the KIN and KIN2,,, social media phone,,, FLOP,, big mistake,, why it was a dumb smart phone it only did social media and required a data plan to boot, verizon was 2999, so for a kid this is just not gonna happen, not to many parents are gonna flip for the data,,,,, for a dumb social media phone. now on the flip side of the coin parents will pay for a droid or an iphone,, why because they are multifunction smart phones,,, will this phone be a huge success,,, NO,,,

Sarah stone

I have no clue on how to sign into facebook on this cell phone. nothing matches to my facebook on the computer and I wishes not to change my password and my facebook title.

So how do I accomplish getting everything to match. It also keeps asking me for a code and keeps sending me textings which I’m probably getting charged for. I’ve tried to talk to a live operator and I don’t think I was
at the right department for the internet part of the phone. So oh well.

Msavannha

umm i just got this phone and it doesnt suck and its not ugly i put a hot pink case on it and its cute